-The Hindu India has a lasting infrastructure of public support that can, in principle, be expanded in drought years to provide relief. But business as usual seems to be the motto Droughts in India used to be times of frantic relief activity. Large-scale public works were organised, often employing more than 1,00,000 workers in a single district. Food distribution was arranged for destitute persons who were unable to work. Arrangements were also...

-Press Release from Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms The recent joint conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts and the Supreme Court of India, concluded with an anguished appeal from the Chief Justice of India for far greater government participation in ensuring urgent judicial reforms, especially in addressing the vast shortage of judges. The Chief Justice of India’s speech also revealed that the efficient functioning of the...

-Livemint.com Environment minister Prakash Javadekar says extreme rainfall events are highly localized and part of the natural variability of the Indian monsoon system New Delhi: Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar has admitted that there is a rise in the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events in the last 40-50 years in India, but doesn’t think the phenomenon is linked with climate change. He was responding to a query raised in...

-The Indian Express A neat separation of poverty estimates and entitlements won’t pass muster. There was much hope about the work that Arvind Panagariya was mandated to do on the measurement of poverty. I, for one, have held from the 1980s that the official poverty line that emerged from a taskforce I chaired in 1976-77 should be shelved. Panagariya has reportedly suggested that the Tendulkar Committee’s report should be accepted for...

-The Indian Express It’s not that Maharashtra has spent less on irrigation. The real problem is its high cost. Latur in Maharashtra has become a symbol of acute water scarcity. Several “jal doots” (water trains) had to ferry water to thirsty Latur. The Maharashtra government also imposed Section 144 to maintain law and order near water bodies/ distribution points. The high court intervened in the case of IPL matches and asked these...